


If this is to End in Fire

by Cumberbatch Critter (ivelostmyspectacles)



Series: Sleepy Hollow OTP Prompts [27]
Category: Sleepy Hollow (TV)
Genre: Angst, Declarations Of Love, F/M, Friendship/Love, Gen, Heart-to-Heart, How Sleepy Hollow Might End (but hopefully not), I'm Sorry, Near Death, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-22
Updated: 2014-11-22
Packaged: 2018-02-26 14:00:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2654609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivelostmyspectacles/pseuds/Cumberbatch%20Critter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>... then we should all burn together.</p><blockquote>
  <p>"I'm glad you were the other Witness."</p>
  <p>"Likewise." </p>
</blockquote><p>
  <b>Prompt: Person A and Person B having a heart-to-heart when they believe they're going to die.</b>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	If this is to End in Fire

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sagittae](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sagittae/gifts).



> Prompted by [Xelbie](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Xelbie/pseuds/Xelbie). Wow, I had such better plans for this! That being said, I still enjoy it, and yeah, I definitely don't want SH to end this way. *sweat*
> 
> Title = _I See Fire_ by Ed Sheeran.
> 
> I do not own _Sleepy Hollow_ or _I See Fire_. Thanks for reading!

"I'm sorry."

It wasn't the first thing that Ichabod had planned to say, but it was the only thing that came out. He cringed at the raw emotion in his voice. He was supposed to be collected.

"Oh, Crane, _please_ -"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that." Ichabod fidgeted, looking around the room. "Do you recognise this place?"

Abbie shook her head.

"How is it here, then, when neither of us are visualising it?"

"Don't know. Don't care." Abbie leaned forward to bury her face into her hands.

"Perhaps we won't-"

"We're in the fucking waiting room to Hell, Crane, what the _hell_ do you think's gonna happen to us?!"

Ichabod didn't cringe at her reaction, and tried not to focus on the ball of regret and upset growing inside his chest. "Apologies," he muttered, ducking his head.

"... _Sorry_ ," Abbie muttered. "I'm sorry, I _suck_ at this." She stood up, pacing around the exit-less room.

"I can't imagine that anyone takes impending death well," Ichabod said quietly.

"I mean, I've known this was coming, we both knew since the beginning. ‘The Beast will rise up and claim the Witnesses’, or whatever the hell the verse is. But... now it's here. Okay, we saved the world. Great." She sounded tearful. "But we won't be there to witness our new world because _we're going to Hell_!"

Ichabod spun around, gripping Abbie's shoulders. " _Faith_ , Abbie."

Abbie stared up at him hysterically for a moment before laughing weakly. "You don't _actually_ believe we're getting out of this. Don't try to tell me you do."

Ichabod was all prepared to lie that _yes, he did_ , because if they didn't have faith, they didn't have anything. But something stopped him from saying that. He knew the verse of the fates of the Witnesses, better than anyone else, probably. And the look on Abbie's face stopped him, too.

He sighed, pulling Abbie against his chest. "Not really," he muttered. "The purpose that we were put on this earth for has been fulfilled. I wish that it were not so, but, if Fate is predestined, then, no, I do not."

Abbie pressed close into the hug, wrapping her arms around him tightly.

Ichabod rest his head against Abbie's and closed his eyes. "I am sorry," he repeated. "For... everything."

"You've got nothing to be sorry for," Abbie muttered against his chest. "You're the one who got me through this to begin with."

"No," Ichabod muttered. "I owe you my thanks for guiding _me_ through this strange time. I truly could not have asked for better companionship," he admitted, idly rubbing circles onto her shoulder.

Abbie didn't respond, but her arms around him tightened.

Ichabod lost track of how long they stood there, but he was there as long as Abbie wanted him, or as long as he was allowed.

"I'm glad you were the other Witness," Abbie mumbled.

"Likewise."

"I... _literally_... couldn't have done this without you," she continued. "I don't know how many times I... wanted to back out." She sucked in a breath. "But then I thought about you, how you embraced this whole thing... you, who were tossed out of your life and into this one, into mine... and I could never let you do that again. So I kept fighting. For Jenny, and Irving, and Nick and Mama and every _single_ person who's been affected by this war... especially you."

Ichabod didn't say it out loud - it would be a never-ending reciprocation of agreements, it would seem, as he and Abigail appeared to be on an identical wavelength - but Abbie had always been the reason that he had kept fighting, too.

"I understand," he said instead, tilting his head down to press his lips against the top of her head. The action was unbidden. He didn't regret it afterwards; it felt more natural than anything else in the past few months.

Abbie shifted, curling her fingers into his coat. "You know... in a different life... we might have made something more than just partners for a cause," she mumbled.

Ichabod smiled sadly. "Yes."

He had never said anything. Their lives had gotten too complicated, after Moloch had risen to earth. After Irving had lost control over his actions, after Katrina had sacrificed herself for them, after capturing Moloch and resealing him in Purgatory... It had never been the right time, and last minute declarations of love were not his modus operandi.

So, ‘yes’ was good enough.

"Good," Abbie mumbled.

Ichabod sighed quietly and held onto her tightly. Until he was torn away from her, he'd be by her side. If they were to enter Hell, they would enter hand-in-hand.

 


End file.
